Book Review

Vegan Yum Yum: Decadent (But Doable) Animal-Free Recipes for Entertaining and Everyday

by Lauren Ulm
Review by Tammie Ortlieb

Lauren Ulm has created a culinary taste sensation in her latest book, Vegan Yum Yum. From her Roasted Eggplant and Carmelized Onion Marinara to her Tamarind Tofu Cabbage Bowl, she has provided dishes which please the palate, utilize simple ingredients, and look great on the plate. Her recipes cover courses from appetizers, try the Sesame Ginger Seitan Dumplings or Miniature Napoleans with Eggplant Creme, to desserts such as Miniature Baked Doughnuts, Cherry Trifles, and Honeydew Coconut Tapioca. And for the main dish you may want to serve up some Delicata Squash Stuffed with Cherry-Almond Couscous or a little Vegetable Fried Rice. And did I mention that every recipe is vegan?! So no reworking, experimenting, or tossing what could have been good food into the dumpster.

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I especially enjoy the fact that Ulm encourages me to get a little creative in the kitchen. Try some other veggies, whatever pasta you have on hand. If it doesn't work this way, do it that way. You can make it with the sauce or without. I am that kind of cook. I can never follow a recipe exactly, so those militant culinary sergeants always intimidate me. Oh, I buy their books but often just for coffee table decoration. Sorry, Lauren, but my copy of Vegan Yum Yum is soon to be all grease spattered from the Country-Fried Seitan, flour smudged from the Cinnamon Raisin Swirl Bread, and stuck together from the sugar and lemon juice in your Mini Blueberry Tarts with Lemon Cream. On the docket for dinner tonight? Creamy Broccoli Mushroom Bake. I'm sure that, too, will end up on the pages of my new favorite vegan cookbook. Not only is Ulm flexible in her instructions, but reassuring as well. I feel confident that I can recreate her works because she, like me, is just a regular person, not some formally trained vegan chef. Ulm maintains a popular vegan blog at www.veganyumyum.com, has appeared on The Martha Stewart Show, and has been featured in VegNews. Her blog won both the 2008 VegNews Veggie Award and the 2008 Veg Blog Award. Ok, so that's not so regular. But, she has designed the recipes herself, baked or blended or broiled the dishes, personally photographed the works, then enjoyed the meal with her husband right after snapping the pics. I can see me doing this in my own kitchen. I can do it! Thanks, Lauren, for that boost of confidence. My only issue with the book? That I can't make all the recipes right now!

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Tammie Ortlieb is a freelance writer and adjunct instructor with a Master's Degree in Developmental Psychology. She resides in southwest Michigan with her omnivorous husband, four veg kids, and small menagerie of pets. Tammie writes for various vegetarian sources, mostly on being okay with your vegetarian self. She's a book nerd, a research nerd, a health nerd, and a huge glass of soymilk half full kind of creature. Visit her blog at www.middle-agedveganchick.blogspot.com.

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